My sister and I had previously spoken about the fact I was reading this book.

When she’d seen on Goodreads that I’d finished it and given it 3/5 she said this:

Here’s my response, my hastily written notes.

Long answer! thanks, give me a chance to sum up.

tldr

I think I might need to revisit this book for Part Two - ‘growing a reader’ when they’re olderz

The beginning had a bunch of good tips and tactics for young kids at the start which I’ll take away. Things like…

babies

  • read to your baby, instilling familiarity with the mechanics of reading
  • wordless books are fantastic opportunity to build visual literacy
  • board books!
  • simple art and design

young kids

  • book discussion at the dinner table and in normal family life, not just bedtime
  • books on show in the living areas etc (most correlated statistic for literacy than parents income level, standard of education)
  • evidence of parental reading/appreciation
  • If you’re on a Kindle, mention words or discuss your book so they realise you’re reading
  • celebrate the library and book shop
  • boys might favour non-fiction, comics more than stories
  • books as birthday gifts
  • ask party guests to wrap one of their own books and bring it to party then give out to kids instead of a party bag containing sweets and plastic
  • Gifting a book to a child, inscribe the jacket with a line on what’s he like at this age
  • books starring tv character can make kids crave even more TV time

older kids, and young adults

…

Its recommendations of actual books were all US-centric - arguably not the fault of the author when the reader is from UK.

Towards the end, the format of the book made for a grueling read - for each age group, just a list of unconnected recommendations.